The Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke have been gambling since before there even was a Canada, but recent regulatory and legal developments in the country have put a damper on the online betting business of the Quebec-based Indigenous community.
Now, the government of Kahnawà:ke (located near Montreal) is considering ways to again grow its longstanding wagering presence after a few lost battles with Canadian lawmakers and in Canadian courtrooms.
- After setbacks in court and Parliament, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke is reasserting its authority in online gambling
- The MCK aims to grow its gaming industry to support economic independence
- Despite legal challenges and provincial competition, the council continues to push for federal recognition of its jurisdiction over gambling
On Sept. 19, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) announced it had approved a new mandate for a Gaming Working Group (GWG), which includes representatives from the council and the council-appointed Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission.
The document says the council of chiefs “delegates the responsibility and mandates and authorizes the Gaming Working Group to support the protection, assertion and advancement of Kahnawà:ke’s jurisdiction over both land-based and online gaming.”
And the MCK very much believes it has jurisdiction when it comes to gambling, including online gambling, citing the “inherent rights” provided for Canada’s Indigenous people in the country’s Constitution.
“The bottom line is that this mandate is to enhance and strengthen the gaming industry and to assert our jurisdiction for the benefit of our people,” said Ratsénhaienhs (elected Council Chief) Paul Rice in an interview with Covers last week.
A fresh gaming mandate sets the stage for the MCK, if it so chooses, to make a splash in online sports betting and iGaming in Canada. While the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission has long regulated gambling activity “within and from” Mohawk territory, and continues to do so, the MCK no longer has an online sportsbook or casino to call its own.
New Gaming Working Group Mandate to enhance and strengthen Kahnawake's Gaming Industryhttps://t.co/VhVShGtPkW pic.twitter.com/TgBAYIUf4a
— MCK Public Relations (@MCKahnawake) September 19, 2025
That change was made official last October, when the MCK and a wholly owned company of the council announced the end of a “longstanding partnership” with Entain PLC-owned Avid International Ltd. regarding Sports Interaction.
The online sportsbook and casino had long been a source of financial support for the MCK, such as $4 million in COVID-19-related relief during the pandemic. The MCK says it has derived more than $100 million in “own source revenue” from land-based and online gambling over three decades.
“Growing the gaming industry is essential to our financial and economic independence,” Rice said in a press release about the new mandate earlier this month. “In the face of government infringement and funding cuts we must assert and advance our jurisdiction to continue supporting the development and protection of our community.”
It was also noted last year that the end of partnership with Entain could provide “new opportunities” and a "new brand" for the MCK, which was released from exclusivity obligations. The refreshed gaming mandate now sets a course to further explore potential opportunities, as, among other things, the working group will help "support the creation and implementation of gaming operation partnerships, both within Kahnawà:ke and externally."
Getting it right
Rice (who handles the economic development portfolio for the council) told Covers that the MCK’s approach can be a “bit different” in its approach than other First Nations, as it searches for equity, revenue-sharing, and dividend-receiving opportunities from business relationships. Rice also noted that online gambling has “evolved tremendously,” and now encompasses more than just the sports betting that first got the MCK into the online gambling business.
“There's a lot of great operators out there, there's also a lot of competition, there's also a lot of investment required,” he told Covers. “So we want to make sure that we choose the right opportunity, and we'll be evaluating that over the next quarter as part of our engagement related to gaming.”
Some of the recent changes to online gambling in Canada have been on the legal and regulatory side, and those changes have made life more difficult for the MCK.
One was the decision by federal lawmakers to legalize single-game sports betting in 2021, but to do so without enshrining the gaming rights of Indigenous governments like the MCK into Canada's Criminal Code. So, while the MCK maintains it has those rights under Canada’s Constitution, it doesn’t have those rights mentioned by the key federal law for gambling.
Another big change was the launch of a new and regulated Ontario sports betting and iGaming market in 2022, which prompted the transition of many non-provincially regulated operators into the new regulated market. The MCK unsuccessfully challenged the legality of Ontario’s new regulatory framework in court, and has said the province has tried to undermine Kahnawà:ke’s reputation “as a legitimate gaming jurisdiction.”
'Time immemorial'
The MCK tried to show the economic risks of those two changes to its community, which has been participating in land-based and online gambling for decades. The council also stood up for itself again last year, in an Ontario court reference seeking to determine if the province can connect its iGaming scheme to others outside of Canada.
“Wagering has been a part of Mohawk culture since time immemorial,” the council wrote in a factum to the Court of Appeal for Ontario last November. “MCK has exercised that right in modern times by enacting the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Law, which it enacted in 1996, to regulate and license land-based and online gaming. Kahnawà:ke was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to recognize the economic benefits of online gaming.”
Alberta, now, is preparing to launch an Ontario-like iGaming market. That new Alberta sports betting market is expected to go live next year, creating another potential jurisdictional rival for Kahnawà:ke.
BetMGM co-owner Entain is looking for an Alberta-based VIP Account Manager. This someone "will be responsible for building a personal relationship with selected customers who have already passed the sustainability and RG risk criteria." pic.twitter.com/9SeSbKthH2
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) September 29, 2025
Yet Rice said the MCK’s strategy going forward will involve “getting back to basics, standing on our sovereignty in the gaming space.”
He also noted that the online gambling business of government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. is still growing despite the authorization and regulation of a small army of private-sector competitors in the province. Alberta's new iGaming market will similarly invite private-sector operators to legally compete against its government-owned iGaming operator, Play Alberta.
“So what that says to me is that there's still plenty of market share out there, plenty of operators that want to work with Kahnawà:ke, who want to have a partner that is Indigenous, that is First Nations, who want to work with First Nations,” Rice said. “I think that's where we start.”
The MCK and the Gaming Working Group plan on getting in the ear of Canadian lawmakers as well. The group’s new mandate includes that it will engage with other First Nations, external governments, and regulatory bodies to “negotiate agreements, understandings, or legislative carve-outs that recognize and uphold Kahnawà:ke’s jurisdiction.”
One vehicle for this effort has been federal legislation, Alberta Senator Scott Tannas' Bill S-268. That bill proposed to amend the Criminal Code “to provide that the governing body of a First Nation has exclusive authority to conduct and manage a lottery scheme on its reserve and to license the conduct and management of a lottery scheme by other persons and entities on its reserve.”
A fair-for-all
A “lottery scheme,” in Canadian legal parlance, means gambling. So S-268 (or a bill like it) could help provide the extra legal clarity that the MCK wants, although the council also wanted the legislation to be tweaked a bit to clarify its rights in connection with online gambling.
That, Rice said, “levels the playing field” for MCK and others when it comes to the online gambling “monopoly” the Criminal Code currently provides for provinces. While, again, the MCK doesn’t believe it needs a bill to say it has a right to be in the gambling business, federal recognition of that fact wouldn’t hurt.
“We want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other nations to ensure that we're receiving the benefits from the gaming industry, that it’s not just going to the provinces and there's nothing coming back to the nations," Rice said.
